In the first year this degree programme deals with how and why certain issues become defined as problems and what might be done about them; students examine a range of issues which are the subject of current debates, with attention to their political and historical context, they are then set in context of the social divisions of class, gender, race, age, disability and sexuality; this means students have the opportunity to look at the nature of modern welfare states, equal opportunities, discrimination, poverty and social exclusion; in the second and third years, the degree allows allows students to focus on specific criminological topics; these include criminological thought, the criminal justice system, juvenile justice, victimisation, criminal careers, youth in trouble, the history of crime and punishment and contemporary problems such as drugs, acquisitive crime, organised crime and cybercrime.